Bad news

Just when you think things can't get any worse, leave it to a Wall Streeter to wreck your holiday weekend-- a full two days before it starts.

I know my job here is to comment on trucking but as I don't own a commercial vehicle, nothing brings the fuel crisis home to me as thumpingly as the price of gas.

Of course gas prices at the pump are affected by many factors-- transportation costs (yep, trucks bring it!), taxes, and a real bone of contention in my home state of Connecticut: the legalized thievery known as "zone pricing."

But I digress... The thing is when plain old regular gas hit $4.00 and then promptly started floating upward to reach the $4.19 range this past week, I was thrilled to hear over the car radio that at least one analyst expected the price to peak Memorial Day Weekend and then if not drop at least slide on back a bit.

Dream on, Dave. That bubble of optimism was spectacularly burst this morning by a piece in The New York Times that revealed an "oracle of oil" (that is the newspaper's description, not mine), one Arjun N. Murti, an analyst with giant investment bank Goldman Sachs, "foresees a 'super spike' -- a price surge that will soon drive crude oil to $200 a barrel."

The barrel we are all over

The Gray Lady report states that "A few years ago, rivals scoffed when he predicted oil would breach $100 a barrel. Few are laughing now. Oil shattered yet another record on Tuesday, touching $129.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. "

It goes on to point out that "the grim calculus of Mr. Murti‘s prediction, issued in March and reconfirmed two weeks ago, is enough to give anyone pause: in an America of $200 oil, gasoline could cost more than $6 a gallon. "

Well, I am not laughing one bit and refuse to just pause over this.

I for one am very concerned that the Lamest Duck Adminstration, which still has many levers of power at its fingertips, will actually do anything significant to ease the slow death by oil our economy seems consigned to suffer.

There's a lamer duck than Howard in DC these days

Barring that, all we can do at work and at home is be as economical as possible and hang on till next January when a new POTUS might show us what a real leader can make happen.